Kuwait Times

Published Date: November 20, 2009
By Rawan Khalid and Hanan Al-Saadoun, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Minutes before the long-awaited soccer match, roads were empty and everything seemed calm and peaceful. Soccer fans were glued to their seats, either at home or at local cafés, getting ready for the World Cup qualifying match between Egypt and Algeria.

Thousands of fans crowded into cafés in Hawally, Farwaniya, Salmiya and other areas across Kuwait. Some wore their teams' jerseys and others painted their national flags on their faces, arms and maybe even elsewhere. The atmosphere was tense.

It's not just a soccer match... my country's reputation is at stake! They can't lose. They should win. I don't care," an Egyptian fan shouted a few moments before the match.

Last week, when the Egyptian team won the soccer match against Algeria 2-0, fans celebrated the victory until the early hours of the next day. Some shouted patriotic slogans while marching down the street, others drove their vehicles around, honking their horns, with a third group waving torches and shouting jubilantly. Some roads were completely blocked. People stood on pavements celebrating Egypt's soccer victory.

On that same night Kuwaiti fans were also there to celebrate the Kuwaiti team's 1-0 victory over Indonesia, so there were triumphal processions for both the Kuwaitis and the Egyptians.

One of the fans, Khalid Abdulrahman, spoke to the Kuwait Times ahead of the Wednesday's match, while sitting in a local café awaiting the start of the match. "My friends and I prepared ourselves for the celebration in case our team won the match. We drew flags on our faces, hands, shoulders," he said. "We even waved the flag throughout the entire match!

Many fans gathered with fellow enthusiasts to have fun with friends and support their national teams. Khalid said that many people of other nationalities, including Kuwaitis, had joined him in cheering on the Egyptian team. "Our cheers transformed into suspense mixed with sadness when the Algerian team scored the first goal towards the end of the first half," Khalid said.

In the end, Algeria emerged as the winners, maintaining their goal difference and succeeding in holding back the Egyptian team to the center of the pitch to prevent them from scoring. Chants turned into tears, frustration and anger. The most extreme fans rushed out into roads, throwing stones to vent their disappointment, with fifty expatriates being arrested following the conclusion of the match, when some Egyptians fought with each other and were subsequently joined by other, Algerian, fans.

Patrol officers who were at the scene called for backup, and the situation was brought under control. Meanwhile, some Egyptian female pupils who brought their national flags to school yesterday to mark the big match were told by school officials to put them away since such shows of nationalism could cause tensions with the schools' other North African pupils from countries including Algeria and Morocco.

There was disappointment from expatriates in Kuwait at the fighting that followed the match. One Egyptian resident of Kuwait, Ahmed Abd Al-Monem, told the Kuwait Times, "It's a soccer game why is this happening? The fans should show some sportsmanship. For me I don't care who won, but my opinion is Algeria behaved really badly yesterday in the game, there were so many fouls during the match. They were very tough in the game. I think they didn't play this game for winning, but for another purpose.

Another Egyptian expat, Mahmoud Adel, said after the match "I think this match shifted in the end to a fight between the two sides...we heard that after the match Egyptian fans were beaten by Algerian fans, but this is not Arab tradition. I want to tell the Algerians, don't forget that we are brothers, we are Arab, and we are neighbors in the end, and it's shameful for you, as Algerians, to do this.

Algerian supporter Asmaa A disagreed with others' assessment though shared, "Algeria deserves to enter the FIFA 2010 cup, and they didn't start the fight, the Egyptians started the fight in Cairo before the game, and the players were injured before the match; they deserved what they got from Algerians, in Sudan or outside Sudan.

Marwa Sami, an Egyptian supporter in Kuwait, took an opposing view, however, going so far as to insist that Algeria should be disqualified: "When I opened my Facebook account this morning, I was surprised to see what the Algerians were doing, and I know from looking at news sites that an Egyptian supporter died after the game," he told the Kuwait Times. "I think the FIFA should disqualify Algeria from the Cup; in my opinion I think with this bad behavior, Algeria doesn't deserve to enter the 2010 World Cup
.